market folly

Continuing our coverage of hedge fund short positions in Europe, next up is Belgium.

New European rules are forcing hedge funds to disclose information about the most carefully guarded part of their business activities: short positions. Since November 1st when the EU Regulation on short positions came into force, there has been a deluge of information from financial regulators in EU countries giving information on short positions across all market sectors.

Public disclosure is required for net short positions of shares that reach 0.5% of the issued share capital of the company concerned and again at each 0.1% increment above that.  Additionally disclosure is required publicly when the position subsequently falls below 0.5%.  Here are the latest disclosures in Belgian markets:


Hedge Fund Short Positions Disclosed in Belgium

Coatue Management: Short -0.82% Delhaize Group

Pennant Capital: Short -0.84% Delhaize Group

Tiger Consumer Management: Short -0.84% Delhaize Group

Maverick Capital: Short -0.98% Delhaize Group

Wellington Management: Short -1.02% Dexia


Clearly supermarket group Delhaize (EBR: DELB) is a popular short with some of the more prominent long/short hedge funds.

Wellington Management’s short in Dexia (EBR: DEXB) is also interesting as the French and Belgium governments were involved in another bailout of the Belgium listed bank on November 8th. Dexia was first rescued with taxpayer funds in 2008 and last year became one of the most obvious casualties of the sovereign-debt crisis. Dexia is an interesting test case in how well national governments can co-operate to solve the European crisis. France, Belgium and Luxembourg have all made guarantees to Dexia.


To see more hedge fund shorts, head to our other coverage:

 - Hedge fund short positions in the UK

- Hedge fund short positions in Germany

- Hedge fund short positions in France

- Hedge fund short positions in the Netherlands